According to the coordinator of the National Plan for Active Aging, which advocates for an increased focus on support at home, 580 people discharged from hospital remain in hospital awaiting a place for social response and further care.
In a conversation with the Lusa agency, Nuno Marques recalled that from 2020 until Monday, 6,496 users who were in hospitals were placed in social services, stressing that a strategy for coordinating social response measures exists and that this year alone 1,292 were placed in social services person. homes, as part of a joint social security and healthcare campaign.
Regarding the warning issued on Monday by the Santa Maria Hospital, which reported that it was having difficulty accepting patients because about 50 beds were occupied by patients who had already been discharged but were awaiting transfer to social response and continuation of care, Nuno Marques highlighted the need to invest more in home support.
“If we can optimize and improve the response at home, people will often be able to come home with some support from their family and these specialized teams,” said the person in charge, stressing that “the focus should be to get as many people at home as possible.” to reduce the number of people placed in institutions.
This could ‘open up job openings’ [nas instituições] for those [pessoas] who really need to be in institutions.”
As he explained, the 580 people waiting for a seat are mostly users with some addiction, but these are not exactly social cases.
“The number of people with purely social status [pessoas que não têm domicílio] this is very low (…). What happens is that people often have acute health problems (…) and this increases their dependence,” he explained.
Nuno Marques emphasized the difference between social cases and cases that have some dependence, emphasizing: “When we talk about social cases here, we are not talking about that. We are talking about people who have a social need to give an answer. their physical or mental dependence.”
He argues that the system needs to evolve and become more people-focused, acknowledging that the issue of funding “will have to follow that evolution.”
“It will also provide institutions with more adequate funding for the users they have and support,” he added.
In September, figures provided by the NHS chief executive (up to 31 August) showed that 1,600 patients were inappropriately admitted to hospital pending social backlash and vacancies in the National Integrated Continuing Care Network.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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